


Yellow For Service

by DetectiveJoan



Category: Autoboyography - Christina Lauren
Genre: Babysitting, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Mormonism, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-20 13:26:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16138187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DetectiveJoan/pseuds/DetectiveJoan
Summary: Queerness does not preclude surprise babysitting dates.





	Yellow For Service

**Author's Note:**

> **Content warning** for canon-typical references to being closeted and all the implied homophobia that goes with it. 
> 
> Written for the [Trope_Writing_Prompts](https://pillowfort.io/community/Trope_Writing_Prompts) community on Pillowfort. The prompt was "baby on the doorstep"/"accidental baby acquisition" but this is, uh, it's just a babysitting date. I'm sorry. 
> 
> Title from the LDS children's hymn "[Our Primary Colors](https://www.lds.org/music/library/childrens-songbook/our-primary-colors?lang=eng&_r=1)".

Tanner’s been looking forward to tonight for two weeks. It’s going to be the first time he’ll see Sebastian since coming home for Christmas break, and he knows exactly how they’re going to spend the evening. Seb’ll show up shortly after dinner, hopefully not before the rest of Tanner’s family leaves for his mom’s work holiday party, and Tanner will take him into the family room. They’ll put on a movie. They’ll ignore the movie. They’ll take full advantage of the empty house and spend the better part of two hours making out on the couch.

When the doorbell rings, Tanner nearly runs to the front door in his excitement; when he opens it, Sebastian is standing on the doorstep with an infant on his him.

Tanner stops like he’d walked right into a brick wall.

“Uh,” he says, hanging on the open door awkwardly. “Hi?”

“Hi.” Seb flashes him that stupid melt-all-your-insides smile and Tanner instantly knows all his plans are about to derail completely and he won’t even be able to complain about it.

Seb gives the kid a little bounce. “Say hi, Josh.”

The kid makes some kind of garbled noise that Tanner wouldn’t call words, and then presses one of his chubby hands to Seb’s cheek without even bothering to look in Tan’s direction.

“Where’d the kid come from?” Tanner asks.

“I stopped by the Petersons’ on my way here to return the dish from that casserole they made us when Mom was sick last month, and they mentioned that their babysitter had just canceled on them…”

“So you offered to take him.”

Because of course he did. Because Tanner is dating a fricking _saint._

“It’s ward temple night.” Seb shrugs like he had no other options. “You don’t mind, right?”

Tanner sighs. He really needs to get a more selfish boyfriend. Someone who will put his own desire for physical intimacy above doing service for every Mormon housewife that crosses his path. Someone who will show up with roses and condoms instead of babies and stories about casserole dishes. Someone who will use his will-destroying smile for evil, and not for...whatever this is.

“I guess not,” Tanner says, and steps back enough to let them inside.

Sebastian’s whole face lights up. “Great! I know you said you wanted to watch a movie tonight, but I don’t think Josh’ll sit still for anything that isn’t Disney. I was thinking maybe we could bake some cookies to send home with him instead — do your parents keep ingredients around the house?”

Tanner sighs again and takes a moment to resign himself to his fate before following Seb into the kitchen.

The night actually doesn’t go that awfully, all things considered. Sure, Tanner doesn’t know the first thing about looking after a kid, but Sebastian manages it effortlessly, swinging Josh around the kitchen until the kid is shrieking with laughter. And Tanner probably has less baking experience than Josh does, but Seb leads him through that easily, too, patiently explaining every step of the recipe as they go. And, sure, Tanner had been hoping to spend most of the night in Sebastian’s lap, but every so often Tanner looks up from his task and finds Seb staring at him so intently that it almost makes a shiver run down his spine; the anticipation of having to wait another few hours before they can touch buzzes under his skin almost pleasantly in a way he didn’t expect.

When most of the cookies have been cooled, plated, and saran wrapped, Seb sets Josh up on the living room floor with a couple of crayons found in the junk drawer and old newspapers pulled from the recycling bin, and then collapses onto the couch right next to Tanner.

“Sister Peterson texted,” he says. “They’re gonna come pick him up here in about five minutes.”

“Cool,” Tanner says, taking a bite of a cookie that is still entirely too warm for eating.

“Your parents are still out for another hour, right?”

“Yeah.” Tanner doesn’t even have to check the clock; he’d been counting down the amount of alone time they had left since the moment Seb walked into the house. “You still wanna watch a movie or something?”

Sebastian smoothly takes Tanner’s free hand, lacing their fingers together and leaning into Tanner’s space. “Or something,” he says.

Tanner flushes at his proximity, and nearly pulls away in surprise. “You sure you wanna say stuff like that in front of the kid?” he mutters.

Seb laughs softly and presses a kiss to Tanner’s cheek. “I don’t think he’s going to tell anyone.”

That’s the moment that Josh decides to come crashing into Tanner’s knees, brandishing his scribbled newspaper and babbling like it’s of vital importance; Tanner still can’t understand a word the kid’s saying. Seb hauls Josh into his lap and blows a raspberry against his round cheek, much to Josh’s delight.

“Hey, Josh, I have a question for you,” Sebastian says, using the same serious adult voice he’s been using with him all night. “Do you like Tanner?”

Josh does look at Tanner this time, and waves his arms excitedly in a way that Seb apparently decides to take as affirmation.

“Can I tell you a secret?” he asks in a stage whisper, leaning in until the tip of his nose brushes Josh’s and the kid starts giggling again.

Josh bounces, nearly smashing into Sebastian’s face in the process, and now Tanner can’t hold back a laugh of his own.

Seb looks over at Tan and winks quickly before he speaks again.

“I like Tanner, too,” he says.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm DetectiveJoan and you can find me talking about queer mormonism at all times on [tumblr](http://detectivejoan.tumblr.com/) and [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.io/detectivejoan/)


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